South and West gain seats from 2010 census, Alabama is static

WASHINGTON (RNN) - The U.S. population grew at the second slowest rate since the Great Depression, with just a 9.7 percent increase over the past 10 years.

U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said Tuesday the U.S. population is now more than 300 million, with 308,745,538 people calling the U.S. home in April 2010. In April 2000, the population was about 281.5 million.

During the Depression, the population increased 7.3 percent.

The census numbers are used to apportion the states' representation in the House of Representatives. Each state receives at least one seat, with the remaining 385 seats divided according to each state's population.

The census counted every resident living in the U.S. - whether they were documented or not - a method that has continued since the first census in 1790. The census did not include a question about citizenship.

The South and the West reported the largest gains in population, at 14.3 percent and 13.8 percent respectively. The region with the smallest growth is New England with 3.2 percent.

The state with the largest growth in population was Nevada at 35.1 percent. That's a decrease over a decade ago, when it experienced a growth of 66 percent.

The state with the lowest growth in population was Michigan at 0.6 percent.

The state with the largest growth in the Northeast was New Hampshire, with a growth of over six percent.

In the South, Texas led the way with 20.6 percent growth over Louisiana, which had only 1.4 percent growth.